“Why does the public have an interest in gay marriage? What public good does it serve?”

Gay marriage, bigotry and the public interest

by T. David Gordon

What I find somewhat surprising in the gay-marriage discussion is this: By the evidence of most polls, nearly half of Americans favor gay marriage, even though only 3-5 percent of Americans are gay. That is, only a very small minority of the population has any personal interest in the matter; so why does nearly half the population favor the matter? Suppose athletic directors in high schools proposed some special tax benefit for themselves. Would half of the population support giving that small minority such a tax benefit, merely because they wished to have it? I doubt it. So what accounts for such widespread support for a public policy that would only benefit a very small portion of the population? I believe the answer has two parts.

First, for many people, to oppose gay marriage is to be bigoted; it is to oppose homosexuals themselves. For such people, not to approve gay marriage is to be bigoted (an “enemy of humanity,” as Justice Kennedy so breezily put it), and in our pluralistic and relativistic culture, the only value that is commonly shared is non-bigotry. The last thing we wish to appear is bigoted.

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